In view of the increasing awareness of improving the ecology, it has been observed that the disposing of used or waste oil and other types of carbonaceous material presents a considerable ecological problem. Waste oil, e.g. oil that has been used in a manufacturing process and which has been contaminated with water, machine filings and other matter generally does not render such waste oil suitable for recycling. Heretofore, such used or waste oil was simply discarded. Invariably, such discarded waste oil would eventually find its way to some land fill or dump, only to pollute the surrounding area, seeping into the underground water source and the like. Frequently, even reclaimable oil is simply discarded.
In addition to the ecological problems presented by the abundance of waste oil and/or other types of carbonaceous materials, there exists a related energy crisis, viz. the progressive deterioration of the available oil and/or natural gas reserves, as more and more oil and gas is used.
As a result, many efforts have been made to supplement the natural oil and gas reserves by producing a gas substitute from coal. A number of coal gasification processes are known, e.g. as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,124,435 and 4,101,295. The teaching of these patents are primarily directed to a method and apparatus for effecting the gasification of coal to produce a gas substitute.
Efforts have also been made to reform hydrocarbons into gaseous products as evidenced in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,945,805 and 3,945,806.